Top-mounted vehicle racks provide a versatile platform for transporting bicycles, skis, snowboards, boats, cargo boxes, gear racks, and other items. In recent years, car top carriers in the form of cargo boxes or trunks have become particularly popular. Such enclosed carriers are preferable over conventional open racks for a variety of reasons. For example, enclosed carriers protect cargo from the elements such as wind, rain, and snow, and enclosed carriers are also more secure from theft or vandalism.
However, some car top cargo boxes have shortcomings which may make them difficult or cumbersome to use. For example, a cargo box may have a relatively deep base structure, making access to the interior of the box to load and unload gear difficult. Furthermore, even when gear is not located deep within the box, reaching the gear within the box may require a user to balance on a portion of the vehicle such as a tire or a doorjamb, or to use an accessory ladder to gain access to some portions of the interior of the box, particularly those furthest from the edge of the vehicle roof.
One attempt to overcome the shortcomings described above uses a gear storage assembly that slides laterally out of the cargo box and towards the edge of the vehicle, providing access to the gear without having to reach across the vehicle roof. However, this method requires that the sliding storage assembly be disposed at or above the lip of the base structure, since the assembly must slide out beyond the lip to be accessed by a user. Therefore, such an assembly is not well suited for use within a box having a deep base structure. Furthermore, it still may be difficult for a user to access distal portions of the gear, since the user must reach across the width of the assembly to do so. Thus, a need exists for a cargo storage device that provides better access to the interior of a cargo box, and which may be suitable for use even with cargo boxes having relatively deep base structures.